The Anti-Incinerator Movement launched in November 2020 the second phase of pollution control generated by the Zubieta incinerator and during these weeks they are collecting samples to send them to the laboratory and carry out their analysis by the Dutch foundation ToxiWatch, according to the movement in a communiqué issued on 1 December.

The first 2019 control was carried out before the incinerator was set up to measure the possible contamination of the area and mark the zero point, according to ARGIA in its day. Now, with the start of the incinerator, after the first few months samples are being collected to investigate how pollution is found with the same references.

At the beginning of the second marketing year, the results of the first marketing year were reported in a report by ToxiWatch. It covers the levels of contamination detected in the eggs, plants, water and soil of the chickens in the vicinity of the Zubieta incinerator, as well as those detected in the breast milk of a group of mothers in the area, which will be used as milestones of the situation in the area prior to the incineration of the incinerator. The Anti-Incineration Movement has summarized these results in its note and has advanced that it will publish the study of ToxiWatch in full, both in English and in the Basque version of the main part.

During these days samples are being collected from hens, soils, waters, etc. from around Zubieta, which will form the basis of the study to determine how the situation is in autumn 2020. AM Full Document:

Toxicowatch Foundation begins to compare the pollution being generated by the incinerator with new samples in the surroundings

The Anti-Incinerator Movement launched in November 2020 the second phase of pollution control generated by the Zubieta incinerator and during these weeks they are collecting samples to be sent to the laboratory and analysed by the Dutch foundation ToxiWatch.

As we have already reported, the Zubieta Lantzen association and the Anti-Incinerator Movement called on the Dutch foundation ToxiWatch (TW) to carry out a biomonitoring study of the incinerator of Zubieta… because the public cannot rely on the controls of the companies that manage the incinerator or the authorities of Gipuzkoa themselves, the companies and authorities involved in the Kisheffe.

To carry out independent control, the members of the popular movements elected the Dutch foundation ToxiWatch. ToxiWatch participates in the Basel and Stockholm Treaties within the United Nations Organisation.

Prior to the incinerator’s start-up, ToxiWatch experts collected samples in autumn 2019 to establish the baseline of the level of contamination of Zubieta and its environment, and delivered the results of their analyses in 2020. Given that the project has been funded by various institutions and by a large number of citizens, here we offer a summary of the result of this first analysis and the research work for anyone who wants to read it in its entirety has been disseminated on the Internet.

Sampling was carried out in the autumn of 2019, prior to the start of the Zubieta incinerator, to mark the baseline control point. The following aspects have been analyzed for this biomonization study: Milk from mothers living near the incinerator, eggs from chickens, plants and leaves (from Pinus radiata pines, from Ilex aquifolium gorostia, from Ulex europaeus), moss, soil, river sediment and water.

On the one hand, the eggs have been controlled. Free-raised eggs have been used because they are good indicators of dioxin contamination on land and because eggs are the most obvious way to reach humans with dioxins and other POP products present in the environment.

In a radius of 5 kilometers around the incinerator, 10 chickens were chosen to analyze the eggs, all of them chickens for the self-consumption of the population, none to market the eggs. All locations have been visited to see if there are other sources of dioxins or PCBs mixers around each. The safety store is complemented by soil samples, chicken food and specific plants from each location.

In five of the 10 chickens studied, the eggs of hens comply fully with the European Union’s dioxin standards. Dioxins from the eggs of two other chickens equate to the level set as a limit. And in the eggs of all three positions, dioxins have gone beyond the levels to be able to eat safely. In a territory as industrialized and urbanized as Gipuzkoa, no one should be surprised to find contaminants in the egg and other foods, because that is a more serious reason not to build new, useless, polluting companies like the Incinerator.

The situation has been reported to the owners of sites where eggs contain excessive quantities of dioxins and ToxiWatch has also suggested which factories or infrastructures may exist in the vicinity of the chickens to explain the presence of these contaminants.

For plants, soils, waters and sediments, samples have been taken in an environment of 2 kilometres from the Zubieta incinerator, analysis dioxins, PCBs such as dioxins, estrogenic activity and heavy metals. Dioxins and dioxins have shown small amounts in soil and in pine leaves Pinus Silvestris have not reached the amount to be detected. In water samples, estrogenic activities have hardly been found, only a small rise in sediments very close to the incinerator.

As far as heavy metals are concerned, the remains of the activity of some industries in these areas appear in the soil and in plants during these years. With regard to soils and plants, ToxiWatch has considered suitable for the use of five of the six pre-selected locations.

The study of breast milk was conducted with 39 participants grouped into three groups whose results show low levels of dioxin and PCBs. The intention is to control this section in collaboration with mothers willing to donate breast milk.

Knowing that in the coming years there will be other different mothers, ToxiWatch has concretized the measures to make comparisons rigorous, and in addition to offering milk, has prepared a questionnaire that mothers will complete.

Why is it so important to closely monitor the spread of the Zubieta incinerator? The ToxiWatch Foundation states nine reasons:

• The controls carried out by the incinerators today, in addition to prior notification to the owner, measure the emissions of a few hours: if the incinerator operates 8,000 hours, only 0.1% of them.

• The owners of incinerators use the Air Pollution Control Mechanisms to their liking.

• Controls are carried out only when the incinerator is “in normal operation”, but it is known that most pollutants are emitted “at unusual times, in the downgrades and shadows of the furnaces, in the changes of filters, etc. OTNOC).

• The European Union only regulates dioxins and furans, but not other persistent organic pollutants: dl-PCBs, brominated dioxins and PFOS.

• Proponents of incinerators claim that dioxins and other pollutants are disposed of at a certain temperature, but then the achievement of that minimum temperature throughout the burn mass is not sufficiently guaranteed.

• Nowadays, household waste can be increasingly considered as industrial waste, due to the composition of the materials sent to calcinate. So they ask for it to be burned at higher temperatures, for example by catching 1,100 degrees Celsius in the post-combustion zone, and not at the 800degrees Celsius that are being ordered today.

Since the residues that have already begun to be burned in Zubieta have been generated throughout Gipuzkoa, it is up to all the institutions and citizens of Gipuzkoa to bear responsibility for the poison that is dispersed in the area.

Therefore, given that the main institutions involved in pollution control and in the protection of health and the environment (Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the Basque Government) do not fulfil their responsibilities, Zubieta Lantzen and the Anti-Incineration Movement appeal to the municipalities of Gipuzkoa and to the citizens of Gipuzkoa will continue to support this citizen in the next few years.